US Seeks ‘Common Ground’ with Russian Federation on Syria, Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, in Moscow Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015.

Ryabkov said the establishment of a definitive list of terror groups was essential if progress is to be made in accordance with Vienna talks that are wider than the US-led coalition on Syria.

Von der Leyen also noted that Germany was sending surveillance jets “to Syria with very modern technology, that’s urgently needed _ 10:20 a.m. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has opened talks in Moscow with Russia’s foreign minister to try to narrow broad gaps on ways to end Syria’s civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine”.

A USA diplomat in Paris, who demanded anonymity to discuss the talks, said a meeting in Geneva on Friday between Russian and American diplomats on Syria was aimed mainly at clearing up Russian “grievances” ahead of Tuesday’s Moscow meeting. Russia, on the other hand, is bombing in support of his regime.

“And today I hope we will be able to find some common ground”, said Kerry, who is set to be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin later in the day. A major global conference on Syria would take place later this week in New York, Kerry announced.

Russian Federation and the U.S. are militarily backing opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, and also fundamentally disagree over the role President Bashar al-Assad should play in the search for peace. News agencies on Monday quoted Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian army’s general staff, as saying his country was providing it with weapons, ammunition and material support, while a top Kremlin aide later said there was no such arrangement.

Russian Federation has long insisted that curbing the spread of ISIS is far more important than a political transition in Syria, which is an issue the two countries remain divided on.

“We have no option left but to fight them”, Kerry said. “They are the worst of terrorists”.

“They [ISIL] attack our culture, our dignity”.

A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry aired some of those grievances, saying that Moscow “will continue to seek a revision of the USA administration policy based on dividing terrorists into a “bad” and “good” ones” and complaining that the US was unwilling to engage in “full-fledged coordination” between the two powers’ militaries while both are conducting airstrikes in Syria.

Assad’s future and his potential role in the political transition will be prime topics of Kerry’s conversations with Putin and Lavrov.